1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of event ticket selling, and, more particularly, to a ticket selling solution for limited capacity events that increases market efficiency through dynamic and auction-based pricing and through multiple time sequenced batch releases.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tickets are sold for many limited capacity events, such as airline flights, concert tickets, hotel reservations stays and sporting events. Potential ticket purchasers often have varying demands, constraints, and/or desires. For some purchasers, ticket price is a determinative and overriding factor that determines whether event tickets are to be purchased. Other purchasers are willing to pay a premium for various options and constraints associated with the transaction, such as premium seating, advanced ticket purchase confirmation, the purchase of a block of adjacent seats, the option to cancel a ticket and receive a full or partial refund, the ability to purchase tickets online, delayed ticket payment, and the like.
Conventional ticket supply systems and distribution methodologies are not fully aligned to fulfill market realities. That is, conventional ticket systems fail to properly align ticket supply with market-driven pricing based upon purchaser-imposed constraints, demands and desires, which results in an inefficient market. Third party resellers, sometimes called ticket scalpers, often arbitrage ticket pricing, meaning they buy in-demand tickets at a seller designated price and sell the temporarily purchased tickets at an actual market price, pocketing profits. Even though many states have legally established anti-scalping regulations to prevent or limit profits from ticket reselling, profits realized from this activity have resulted in these regulations being largely ignored. Instead of curbing reselling activities, the regulations have transferred reselling profits to disreputable parties, which increases a risk to ticket purchasers. Consequently, neither potential ticket purchasers nor event coordinators are served by conventional ticket supply methodologies.
What is needed is a ticket distribution methodology with increased market efficiency. Such a method can reward event coordinators with greater profits while increasing ticket availability to consumers through legitimate and safe channels. An efficient methodology should add new market demanded purchasing options for corresponding fees, which would further increase benefits realized by suppliers and by consumers.
Existing systems and/or methodologies fail to satisfy these goals. For example, one conventional ticket supply methodology, common for entertainment events, is to offer fixed pricing by seat category with an all-at-once ticket release. This methodology results in tickets for popular events selling out quickly, which leads to long lines for purchasing tickets, frustrated consumers, and a relatively large spread between a retail ticket price and a ticket market value. Similarly, the fixed price/all-at-once methodology results in excess capacity (tickets not selling) for less popular events, since the retail price per ticket can be greater than the market value. Rewarding early information from bidders incites a maximum of market knowledge by the provider early on, even before tickets are available for sale, resulting in more accurate pricing throughout the sales process.
A different conventional ticket supply methodology, common for airline tickets, is offer variable class-based prices with an all-at-once ticket release, which is referred to as an earliest-seats-cheapest methodology. Tickets having a lower class price sell before tickets with a higher class price. This methodology is based upon a generalized assumption that later buyers are willing to pay more and are more needful of tickets than earlier buyers. In the earliest-seats-cheapest methodology, a ticket supplier loses in several ways as early confirmation (which has consumer value) is given away for free, as well as the opportunity cost incurred by eliminating the possibility of selling the ticket to a more needful buyer in the future for more money.